Dignity & Respect
Balmoral Surgery strives to ensure that patients are afforded privacy and dignity, and are treated respectfully, in all appropriate circumstances where there is the potential for embarrassment or for the patient to feel “ill at ease”.
The requirement to respect patients is the responsibility of all staff, not just those in direct clinical contact with the patient. All practice staff complete Dignity & Respect training and have read the practice’s Dignity & Respect Policy.
Equality & Diversity
Balmoral Surgery values the rich diversity, skills and abilities that people from differing backgrounds and experiences bring to the workplace. Implementing and abiding by a policy that provides for diversity and equal opportunities and deters unlawful discrimination is therefore important.
Every person working for, or on behalf of, Balmoral plays a vital role in implementing its aim to create an inclusive working environment where diversity is welcomed and everyone can work without fear of discrimination.
All practice staff complete Equality & Diversity training and have read the practice’s Equality & Diversity Policy.
Read our Equality & Diversity Policy here (DOCX, 13KB)
Rights And Responsibilities Of The Patient
Failure to Keep Appointments
If you are unable to keep an appointment with any member of the team you should let the practice know immediately so that your appointment can be offered to someone else. Patients who consistently fail to keep their appointment without good reason may be contacted by one of the doctors and could be asked to register elsewhere.
Children
When you are attending the surgery for appointments, or for any other reason, please can you ensure your children are kept under adequate control and direct supervision whilst in the building. Please do not send children to the surgery unaccompanied. For legal reasons, it is sometimes necessary for us to ascertain that the adult accompanying the child has parental responsibility before treatment can be given. This is on occasion embarrassing for all concerned, and it is also sometimes necessary to make further checks.
National Programme For IT
Your medical records are held in the surgery on a stand-alone computer system which can only be accessed by members of the surgery team. Your name and address details are held centrally on the Connecting for Health computer system or 'National Spine'. The Government has rolled out a national programme to have everyone's important clinical information available via the National Spine and our practice is taking part by uploading patient records to the spine unless you tell us you don’t want your records uploaded. This means that should you need to be seen in an emergency away from the practice, but in England, your up-to-date medical history will be available at the time. At the moment it is everyone's right to opt out of this 'summary care record' should they wish to do so. Opting out does not remove your right to have electronic transfer of prescriptions or any other aspect of your care.